Chef de Cuisine, Campus Dining

From fine dining restaurants to residential dining, USC Hospitality serves over 65,000 students, athletes, faculty, and staff, as well as our many visitors. Hospitality is one of the six core business units that comprise USC Auxiliary Services and one of the largest employers on campus. The team at USC Hospitality is led by innovative chefs and directors who strive every day to craft nourishing and wholesome alternatives for our hungry Trojan Family and our guests. We are driven to succeed by our commitment to uphold our unifying values.

Campus Dining encompasses three student residential dining halls, athletics dining venue, and multiple quick-service retail restaurants and cafés, serving a dynamic campus community seven days a week.

We are seeking a Chef de Cuisine, Campus Dining to join our team!

The Chef de Cuisine, Campus Dining will oversee the University Village Dining Hall, which operates as an all-you-care-to-eat venue where food is primarily self-serve, welcoming student residents enrolled in meal plans as well as faculty, staff, and visitors.  The University Village Dining Hall features California-fresh cuisine with a focus on balanced, flavorful meals and diverse offerings designed to meet a wide range of dietary preferences.

Position Overview

The Chef de Cuisine, Campus Dining provides culinary and operational leadership for the University Village Dining Hall, one of USC’s high-volume residential dining venues serving approximately 4,000 meals daily across breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. This role is responsible for maintaining excellence in both front- and back-of-house operations while delivering a high-quality, engaging, and inclusive dining experience.

The Chef de Cuisine serves as the culinary leader for the operation, ensuring strong team performance, financial stewardship, and compliance with all food safety and sanitation standards. This position requires visible, hands-on leadership and the ability to cultivate a positive, student-centered culture that reflects USC Hospitality’s commitment to service and innovation.

Operating in a fast-paced, high-volume environment, the Chef de Cuisine must balance daily execution with strategic planning, team development, and continuous operational improvement.

Key Accountabilities

• Provide overall culinary and operational leadership, ensuring excellence in food quality, service standards, and guest experience.

• Oversee daily food production and execution for high-volume meal periods ensuring consistency, efficiency, and quality.

• Manage, train, supervise, coach, and effectively deploy a diverse culinary team, including three non-union Sous Chefs and a unionized staff of shift leads, culinary team members, dishwashers, and storeroom specialists, in accordance with seniority rules and applicable guidelines.

• Develop and maintain a strong food safety culture; ensure compliance with all sanitation and safety standards, including Los Angeles County Health Department regulations.

• Create, develop, and standardize recipes; perform recipe costing and breakdowns independently using Excel to ensure accurate food cost control.

• Own food cost management, inventory control, waste reduction, and forecasting; enter and manage data in CBORD.

• Oversee ordering processes, including purchasing through approved vendors such as US Foods, ensuring accurate forecasting and product availability.

• Collaborate closely with the Registered Dietitian to develop menus that support diverse dietary needs and promote inclusive dining options.

• Monitor and analyze operational and financial performance metrics; identify opportunities for process improvement, cost savings, and operational efficiencies.

• Maintain an active presence on the dining floor; model strong customer service, professionalism, and approachability while engaging with students and participating in campus life initiatives.

• Manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment, balancing daily operations with strategic planning, staff development, and continuous improvement efforts.

Performs other related duties as assigned or requested. The university reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.

This role requires full open availability. No set schedule. May be required to work weekends, evenings, and/or holidays.

Minimum Requirements

• Specialized/technical training.

• Three years of experience.

• Three plus years in a culinary leadership role within a high-volume, full service kitchen environment.

• Strong track record of success in previous assignments demonstrating upward career mobility.

• Demonstrated knowledge of pertinent local, federal, and state health and safety laws and regulations.

Preferred Requirements

• Related undergraduate study.

• Four years of experience.

In addition, the successful candidate must also demonstrate, through ideas, words, and actions, a strong commitment to USC’s Unifying Values of integrity, excellence, community, well-being, open communication, and accountability.

Employee Benefits

USC offers a wide variety of benefits and programs that support our staff and their families.

This support advocates work-life balance and employee well-being.

USC employees are connected by the traditions and history that make us proud to be Trojans, and the work culture thrives on mutual respect, trust, and synergy amongst all its members.

Join us!

The annual base salary range for this position is $76,000 - $88,000. When determining an offer, the University of Southern California considers factors such as the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate’s experience, education, training, key skills, internal peer alignment, applicable laws, contractual requirements, grant funding, and market conditions.

Specialized/technical training.

Three years of experience.

Three plus years in a culinary leadership role within a high-volume, full service kitchen environment.

Strong track record of success in previous assignments demonstrating upward career mobility.

Demonstrated knowledge of pertinent local, federal, and state health and safety laws and regulations.

                                                  

USC is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC observes affirmative action obligations consistent with state and federal law. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and with due consideration for patient and student safety. Please refer to the Background Screening Policy Appendix D for specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying. 

We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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If you are a current USC employee, please apply to this  USC job posting in Workday by copying and pasting this link into your browser:

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